From lemons to lemonade...

Or, how rainy weather turned into a lens review.

Here in Maine the last 2 weeks have seen some very wet weather, during one 24 hour period last week we had 4 inches of rain, and in total we've received over 8 inches.

And it's supposed to keep raining for at least 4 more days!

Once I finish this post I'm going to put the finishing touches on the materials list for my ark.

;)

But enough about the weather.

During a lull in the (rain) action I grabbed a new lens I bought a few months back but hadn't used all that much, it's a Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S Micro.

You can get this lens at places like Adorama for just over $500.

I bought it for a few reasons, it's highly rated quality glass, it's fast, and it's a macro lens (what Nikon calls "Micro"). Being a macro lens was a big factor as I did not have a macro in my bag.

So I put it on my camera and headed out I go to grab some shots of water droplets. While I was shooting I was surprised at how quiet it was (important when shooting events like weddings and you don't want to be intrusive), and just how close I could get to my subject, within a few inches.

Now I could bore you with technical blah, blah, blah about this lens, but the most important thing to most photographers is, "what do the images look like?"

The five samples below are straight out of the camera, no filter was on the lens while I shot, no post-processing of any kind was done, the only thing I did to these images was reduce their size for posting.

I am extremely happy with the quality of the images and looking forward to using this lens more in the future.

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)





7 comments:

Meredith Brim said...

Will this autofocus on a D60? I haven't found a highly recommended micro lens yet that will.

Scott said...

This is from a Flickr forum:

"The AF-S G version has built in focusing motor, so will autofocus on D40-D60 bodies"

Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikkor/discuss/72157607700982733/

But I would double check with the folks you are considering purchasing it from just to make sure.

Thanks for stopping by.

LouAnn Tovey said...

Great shots... Makes me want a macro now :)

Jodi Renshaw said...

I have been looking into this exact lens. I am going to buy it on Amazon (mush cheaper). Can't wait!

Love,
jodi

half blind said...

Lovely shots. I just put a macro lens on my holiday list!

Miguel Palaviccini said...

How does this guy compare to the non AF-S version? I've played around with the original and my only "complaint" is that the focus is veerrrryyyy slow. Other than that, it takes amazing images!

Ed Macke said...

Just FYI, Ken Rockwell maintains a Nikon lens compatibility page that I find very useful (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm).

@Jody: The Amazon price I see is $548.95. There is a Nikon 60mm f2.8/D (not G) that's cheaper - are you thinking of that one, or am I missing something?